Over 50% of tech workforce likely to return to offices thrice a week by January 2022, said industry apex body Nasscom's `Return to Workplace' survey put out in association with job portal Indeed.com on Monday. "We encourage tech companies to process the reopening in a phased and safe manner while keeping the employee health and safety as the topmost priority," urged Debjani Ghosh, President, Nasscom. Some 72% of enterprises surveyed were expecting up to 50% of their workforce to return to office in 2022 and 57% of respondents said they would be ready to re-open office spaces within three months. Employees up to the age of 25 were most likely to return to workplace by November, followed by employees aged over 40, as per the survey. Some 28% of employees were interested to return to workplace within a month, while 24% of the workforce preferred to return to office after six months. Some 67% of companies reported higher employee satisfaction during remote working. According to the report, both employees and employers are equally interested in making a comeback to the workplace in a hybrid setup, whereas 50% of the workforce is likely to return to offices for up to 3 days a week starting next year. Nasscom and Indeed surveyed tech employees and tech employers to understand their plans to return to offices, their expectations, key considerations, preparedness on both fronts and also to gather their views on emerging hybrid models, Nasscom said in a statement. Yet, some 81% of organisations said employee health and safety remained key considerations for them while reopening the offices. Also, 72% of enterprises were looking at operating at a maximum of 50% employee capacity starting next year, the survey further stated. Today, the hybrid was the preferred choice of work model for over 70% of organisations while IT services and GCCs (global capability centres) were likely to be early adopters of a long-term hybrid work model, found the study. Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, said, “Over the last one and a half years, the way tech organisations have run business operations has undergone a massive transformation. The industry is now prepared to gradually re-open and looking at perfecting a hybrid operating model which brings in the best of both onsite and remote operating models.'' Sashi Kumar, Head of Sales, India - Indeed.com said, "Indeed’s recent hiring tracker indicated that employees are looking for more ‘flexible’ workplaces that will enable work-home balance. The Return to Workplace survey reflects a similar sentiment as more than half of employers and employees favor returning to office in a hybrid model.''
